Cynopsis

07/01/08

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, July 1, 2008, and this is your first early morning briefing.

The current contract expiration came and went at midnight last night while both Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers continue to negotiate.  An offer was made by AMPTP to the actors union, which the producers say is “consistent with the four other labor agreements already reached this year … [and] … our offer addresses issues that SAG identified as being of utmost concern to its members, including tailoring our new media framework for SAG in areas such as feature films and significant gains for working actors.” SAG responded that the offer “does not appear to address some key issues important to actors.  For example, the impact of foregoing residuals for all made-for-new-media productions is incalculable and would mean the beginning of the end of residuals.”  AMPTP and SAG are scheduled to meet again tomorrow, but the producers say they will not accept any counterproposal.  

Tonight’s Premieres:
ABC Family: The Secret Life of the American Teenager at 8p
A&E: The First 48 at 9p
PBS: Wide Angle at 9p

Just after the first episode was shot, NBC ordered seven additional episodes of the half-hour comedy, Kath & Kim produced by Reveille/Universal Media Studios, per THR. The mother-daughter series, starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair, will launch this fall with 13 episodes ready and production is scheduled to start up again next month. 

Spike TV bought season one of the unscripted series Real Vice Cops Uncut, produced by Associated Television International. The series was shot on location in Memphis and Orlando and follows local police vice squad members as they capture real-life criminals. The six 30m episodes will premiere August 6 at 10p. After airing on Spike TV, each weekly episode will be available on Spike.com.

Three syndicated crime series, Da Vinci’s Inquest, Cold Squad and ReGenesis all distributed in the U.S. by Program Partners, have been renewed for another year and cleared in more than 90% of the country. The new season for all three will premiere this fall. Da Vinci’s Inquest is produced by Haddock Entertainment and Barna-Alper Productions, and ReGenesis is from Shaftesbury Films.

Outdoor Channel introduces two new series to its Friday Night Fishing programming block on July 4:

• Fly Fishing the World – Celebrity guests join host John Barrett in some of the most amazing fishing destinations worldwide. The show will also feature a look into the people, culture and wildlife of these locations. Premieres at 830p.
• The Catch: Costa Rica – 13-episode competition reality series hosted by Aurelia Riley where 12 amateur fishermen and women live together in Costa Rica to out-fish each other to win the title of Ultimate Fisherman and $50,000. Premieres at 10p.

WFN HD, a 24-hour hi-def fishing lifestyle network just launched in North America via Echostar’s DISH Network. The network, from Insight Sports, has 21 exclusive programs ranging from American and Canadian angling, saltwater and freshwater fishing, professional competitions to international tournaments and those on travel and conservation.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM WE tv

Source: Nielsen Media Research, Live Data, Prime M-Su 8p-11p, delivery percent change for W18-34, W18-49 and W25-54 from 2Q07 (4/2/07-6/24/07) to 2Q08 (3/31/08-6/22/08) among ad supported cable networks with universes of 65 million or more households and excluding sport  networks, subject to qualification upon request.

Film actor Tim Roth will star in his first U.S. TV series called Lie to Me, a one-hour drama from Imagine and 20th Century Fox TV. FOX is taking the drama to series with 13 episodes set to debut in early 2009. Tim will play Dr. Cal Lightman, a scientist who invented the field of deception detection where he can read the human face, body and voice to uncover the truth for criminal and private investigations. The science featured in the show is real and based on the research by Dr. Paul Ekman. The pilot will be shot in August with Brian Grazer, David Nevins, Imagine TV President and Sam Baum, writer/creator executive producing. Starring mostly in films throughout his career including the recent Funny Games and The Incredible Hulk, Tim did appear in several British TV dramas early on in his career.  

AMC and ITV are partnering to remake the late 1960s TV show The Prisoner, into a six-part miniseries with Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel in two leading roles. The program is slated to air next year.

Jason Schwartzman joined HBO‘s comedy pilot Bored to Death in the lead role about an alcoholic writer living in Brooklyn who pretends to be a private investigator, according to THR. This casting appointment lifts the contingency on the project and production begins in New York this September.

CYNOPSIS DIGITAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  RealNetworks threw its hat into the DRM-free ring launching an online music store supplied by all 4 major music labels with Verizon and iLike as partners. As part of its “Music Without Limits” initiative, 5 million Rhapsody tracks will now be available a la carte to VCast customers as well as Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Orkut and Bebo visitors via an iLike widget. Rhapsody has been quietly spreading its promotional and distribution tentacles on multiple platforms in recent months, integrating with partners such as Tivo and furiously adding tracks to its subscription service ($12.99 for unlimited streaming, $14.99 to add portability.) Rhapsody is hoping to win more converts to the service signing new partnerships with MTV Networks and Yahoo, which will offer full-song playback of 25 tracks per month as a free sampling. Rhapsody is giving an MP3 album to everyone who registers (for free) before July 4 to promote the new a la carte store.  Full edition: CYN DIGITAL.

CYNOPSIS KIDS – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  July brings what so many fans of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: the Last Airbender have been waiting for, no not the M. Night Shaymalan’s movie yet, but the premiere of last 10 new episodes of book three all over the course of one week July 14  19, 2008, which includes the showdown between Aang and the Firelord.  Nickelodeon bows the new Avatar episodes beginning Monday, July 14, with Wednesday featuring an hour-long special, The Boiling Rock, and the week culminating with the debut of the 2-hour TV movie Sozin’s Comet, Saturday, July 19, 8-10p.  Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies will release Shyamalan’s Avatar movie adaptation in July 2010.  Meanwhile that same week Nicktoons Network will host daily Avatar 5-hour marathons each day, Monday-Saturday, July 14-19, featuring 10 episodes of Avatar each day, culminating on Sunday, July 20 at 5p with the 2-hour movie Sozin’s Comet.  Finally, Paramount Home Entertainment releases Avatar: The Last Airbender  Book 3: Fire- Volume 4 on DVD July 29. Full edition: CYN KIDS.

CYNOPSIS INTERNATIONAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  Endemol Turkey is the newest addition to Endemol‘s cache of units.  The Istanbul-based division will produce formats for the region with former Kanal D Manager/Programming and Product Development Ansi Elagoz named as MD.  The first order of business will be a Turkish version of the Wipeout format for airing on Show TV with a January 2009 production start date.  Full edition: CYN INTERNATIONAL.

Friday – A18-49 Analysis:  NBC took first place Friday night with 1.5/5 A18-49, according to final national ratings from Nielsen Media Research. Out in front during 8p was UNIV’s Al Diablo con los Guapos with a 1.7/7, while the debut of Dance Machine on ABC finished sixth with 0.9/4. UNIV won again at 9p with Fuego en la Sangre at 1.7/6 and also this hour the season premiere of Duel on ABC did a 1.0/3. NBC took the 10p hour as Dateline posted a 1.7/6.

Live + Same Day Household Ratings: Friday, June 27, 2008  time period averages. Source: NTI Galaxy, as dated. Live+SD.

CBS: 3.9/8       Ghost Whisperer [r] 3.6/8, Numb3rs [r] 3.8/7, Numb3rs [r] 4.2/8

NBC: 3.7/7        Most Outrageous Moments [r] 2.7/6, Most Outrageous Moments [r] 2.8/6, Dateline 4.1/8

ABC: 2.5/5         Dance Machine [p] 2.5/5, Duel [p] 2.2/4, 20/20 2.9/6

CW: 2.2/4          Friday Night Smackdown! 2.2/4

FOX: 2.0/4         Fox Movie: Triple X – State of the Union 2.0/4

UNIV: 1.7/3       Al Diablo con los Guapos 2.1/4, Fuego en la Sangre 2.0/4, Fabrica de Risas 1.1/2

TELE: 0.6/1       La Traicion 0.5/1, Victoria 0.7/1, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso 0.7/1

MNT: 0.4/1        Meet My Folks [r] 0.5/1, Paradise Hotel 2 [r] 0.4/1

A18-49: NBC 1.5/5, CW 1.4/5, UNIV 1.4/5, CBS 1.2/5, FOX 1.2/4, ABC 1.1/4, TELE 0.5/2, MNT 0.2/1

NBC Universal elevated Vivi Zigler to President/NBC Universal Digital Entertainment where she will offer support and counsel to all NBCU entertainment websites. Vivi will continue to manage NBC Universal Digital Studio and NBC Digital Entertainment which includes NBC.com.

Former VH1 executive producer, Claire McCabe moved to Nashville to join CMT as VP/Original Programming and Series Development. Claire will create new series and implement all facets of production from series ideas to delivery. She will report to Bob Kusbit, Head/Development, CMT and John Hamlin, SVP/Production and Development.

Bravo added Barbara Bekkedahl as VP/Bravo Sales where she will manage the Bravo sales forces on the East and West coasts, in addition to the regional sales offices in Chicago and Detroit. Prior to this new appointment, Barbara was SVP/Advertising for the Gospel Music Channel.

Michele Band is the new Partner/Co-Owner of Ignition Films and will continue supervising East Coast operations based in New York. Michele currently directs commercials for Nickelodeon’s Creative Advertising Division.

IFC Entertainment upped Lisa Schwartz to EVP/Distribution, Operations and Business Development. Lisa will now manage operations for IFC Entertainment’s multi-platform film company as well as the services IFC in Theaters and Festival Direct. She will also be involved with new business development and growth. Lisa will continue to report to Jonathan Sehring, President, IFC Entertainment. 

Rose Catherine Pinkney, EVP/Programming and Production at TV One announced her resignation and desire to return to Los Angeles to delve into other business pursuits. During her two years with the network she worked on the series Bill Bellamy’s Who’s Got Jokes?, Baisden After Dark and David E. Talbert Presents Stageblack. Jeff Meier, SVP/Programming Strategy and Acquisitions was named Acting Head/Programming and Production for the network.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM CABLE U

This day in History:  1979 – Sony introduced the Walkman.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question: The short-lived series Police Squad! starring Leslie Nielsen parodied several TV shows and movies but it targeted one classic police drama in particular. Which one? M SQUAD (starring Lee Marvin as Lt.Frank Ballinger) or DRAGNET (starring Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday) Kudos to: Howie Zeidman-ABC TV/NY; Robert Twilley-Jupiter Entertainment/Knoxville, TN; Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing/NY; Kimberly Keeley-Safety4Kids/Stamford, CT; Zen Cymbala-NBC Television Networks/Chicago; Judy Margolis-The Ad Place/Dallas; John Kukla-KDFW/KDFI/Dallas-Fort Worth; Tim Necas-NBC Universal/Chicago; Alan Perris-The Television Academy/North Hollywood; Todd Schliewen-KMSB/Tucson; Kerri Huyck-KIDK/Idaho Falls, ID ; Keith MacKechnie-The Actors’ Network/Studio City, CA; Bernard Bourret-Verite Films/Toronto

Today’s Trivia Question:  On the sitcom Still Standing, Bill Miller’s manipulative mother is played by what actress?   (Email
with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: Only the second four correct answers from each time zone will be mentioned; and once you’ve been mentioned in any of the Cynopsis editions, you can’t be mentioned again that calendar week.)

Later — Cyn
07.01.08

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT – Tuesday, July 1, 2008

ABC: Wipeout, I Survived a Japanese Game Show, Primetime: The Outsiders
AZTECA: Lo Que La Gente Cuenta, Historias Engarzadas, Bellezas Indomables
CBS: NCIS [r], 48 Hours Mystery [r], Without A Trace [r]
CW: Beauty and the Geek [r], Reaper [r]
FOX: Moment of Truth, Hell’s Kitchen
ION: Quantum Leap, The Dead Zone, ER
MNT: Street Patrol [r], Street Patrol [r], Jail [r], Jail [r]
NBC: Celebrity Family Feud , America’s Got Talent
PBS: Nova [r], Wide Angle [p ], P.O.V.
TELE: El Juramento, Victoria, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso
UNIV: Al Diablo con los Guapos, Fuego en la Sangre, Aqui y Ahora

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